David A. Louton

David Albert Louton^[1] (born July 10, 1960) is an American academic and financial analyst. He has contributed to several major news outlets.^[2]

Louton was born into Cape Town, South Africa in 1960, the son of American missionary parents Edgar and Barbara Hughes Louton. His family had worked in South Africa since 1951, when his paternal grandfather, Albert Gordon Louton moved to the Northern Transvaal and established a prominent ministry, overseeing about 50 churches by the time of Louton's birth.^[3]

In 1990, Louton graduated from Michigan State University with a PhD in finance. While in college, he had considered becoming a stockbroker.^[4]

Louton joined the faculty of Bryant University in 1991. Since then, he has become one of the best known analysts from the university. He has taken on the role of a financial commentator, making notable contributions to Forbes^[5] and The Hill.^[6] He has been cited in The Wall Street Journal,^[7] Reuters^[8] and Yahoo Finance, among other publications.

His research and teaching focuses on portfolio optimization, but he has a special interest in machine learning.^[9]

Louton's analytical papers on investments have won several awards. These include best paper awards from the Southwestern Finance Association in 1994, the Academy of Financial services in 1998 and 2008, and the Market Technicians Association in 2013.

He is a member of several professional organisations, including the Providence chapter of the CFA Institute and the Market Technicians Association.

From 2011 to 2013, he served as the Associate Dean of Bryant’s College of Business. From 2005 to 2015, he was an advisor of the Archway Investment Fund at Bryant.

Notable articles written or cowritten by Louton include:^[10][11]

• Louton, David A.; Domian, D. L.; Racine, M. D. (2007). "Diversification in Portfolios of Individual Stocks: 100 Stocks Are Not Enough." Financial Review, 42(3), 349–368.

• Louton, David A.; McCarthy, J.; Rush, S.; Sosa, O. (2015). "Tactical Asset Allocation for U.S. Pension Investors: How Tactical Should the Plan Be?" Journal of Asset Management, 16(5), 327–338.

• Domian, D. L.; Louton, David A. (1995). "Business Cycle Asymmetry and the Stock Market." The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 35(4), 451–466.

• Louton, David A.; Saraoglu, H. (2006). "Performance Implications of Holding Multiple Mutual Funds with the Same Investment Objective." Journal of Financial Planning, 19(2), 64–72.

• Louton, David A.; Saraoglu, H. (2008). "How Many Mutual Funds Are Needed to Form a Well Diversified Asset Allocated Portfolio?" Journal of Financial Planning, 21(6), 60–70.

• Louton, David A.; Cullinan, C. P.; Holowczak, R.; Saraoglu, H. (2023). "A Thematic Analysis of Code of Ethics Disclosures in SEC 8-K Item 5.05." Journal of Business Ethics, 178(3), 623–640.

• Louton, David A.; Aydogdu, M.; Saraoglu, H. (2020). "Using Long Short-Term Memory Neural Networks to Analyze SEC 13D Filings: A Recipe for Human and Machine Interaction." Journal of Financial Data Science, 2(1), 10–25.

• Louton, David A.; Holowczak, R.; Saraoglu, H. (2018). "Testing Market Response to Auditor Change Filings: A Comparison of Machine Learning Classifiers." Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 37(6), 453–470.

• Louton, David A.; Ascioglu, A.; Holowczak, R.; Saraoglu, H. (2016). "The Evolution of Market Share Among the U.S. Options Market Platforms."

• Louton, David A.; Brown, T. C. (1995). "Using System Dynamics to Illustrate the Interrelationships of Business Policies." Simulation & Gaming, 26(4), 517–530.